The Uttarakhand High Court upheld the government order, Special permission petition withdrawn from Supreme Court
The Principal of Progressive School Association withdrew its special leave petition filed in the Supreme Court against the order of the Uttarakhand High Court. The order prohibited private schools from charging tuition fees for online classes due to the Corona epidemic. The Uttarakhand High Court in its order on July 3, 2020, denied any interference in the government order allowing private schools to provide online classes to be charged tuition fees.
A bench of Chief Justice SA Bobde, R Subhash Reddy, and AS Bopanna had said, “It is permissible to withdraw the special leave petition filed in this regard given that the High Court has disposed of the matter.” The background On May 12, Uttarakhand High Court Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan and Justice RC Khulbe had said that only such students would pay fees for online classes of private schools which are benefiting from it if they wish to do so. Children who are not availing online classes cannot be asked to pay fees.
This order was challenged in the Supreme Court. It was said that making fee collection optional is a violation of fundamental rights of petitioner schools under Article 19 (1) of the Constitution. If fees are not paid then schools will not be able to pay their teachers and other employees. All students are taking advantage of online classes but only 10% of students are paying fees.
While pending the hearing of the case, the Uttarakhand High Court on 22 June issued an administrative order those private schools running online classes would be allowed to charge fees for the lockdown period.
Schools were also told that such parents who could not pay fees would relax the deadline to collect tuition fees. Private schools were also allowed to charge fees for online classes but were asked not to increase the fees in the 2020-21 academic years. The order was challenged and the bench which stayed the collection of fees said this time that it cannot interfere with the government order.
The court said, “We do not see any reason for interference in the government order but during the implementation of the government order, the state government will appoint a Chief Education Officer in every district who will act as the nodal officer and in case of violation of the government order, the complaints of those parents “Those who are being forced to pay tuition fees while their children are not taking advantage of the online class. It was also said that in such a situation, the schools should be heard.” As private schools offering online classes have now been allowed to collect fees, the special permission petition has been withdrawn from the Supreme Court.
